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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Perks of Owning a Dehydrator: Fruit Leather

Strawberry, Vanilla & Honey

Fruit leathers are like homemade fruit roll ups and there are countless recipes out there, just Google it(there, I did it for you!). I think it's something you can also just fool around with and make up your own recipe...it's basically just mixing pureed fruit, how can it go wrong?

This was my first time making fruit leathers. I had been wanting to make some for along time, but had to wait for Christmas break and home, where there would be both the time and the food processor to do it. I made these within the first week of break, but just hadn't gotten around to posting about them until now...too distracted by cookies, I s'pose. Apologies for the poor picture quality, by the way.

I just used a whole bunch of strawberries my mom had picked in the summer and frozen for later use. Since she never did find a later use, we let them thaw and I pureed them in the food processor with some vanilla and honey. I have read quite a few recipes recommend that you cook the fruit before puree-ing, but since my strawberries were so liquid-y and mushy from being frozen, I skipped this step. Also, cooking the fruit defeats the raw food ambitions that convinced me that I needed my dehydrator in the first place.

Anyways, I strained my mixture because the food processor couldn't liquify everything (like the strawberry seeds, which apparently a Vitamix can do?!), then I poured some onto a dehydrator tray with a non-stick sheet and put it in the dehydrator. If you don't have a dehydrator, I have read thatan oven is quite easily used instead. Once the leathers were dry, I peeled them from the dehydrator sheet and rolled them up with plastic wrap. I realize they look pretty ugly but... it was my first time.

They tasted delicious. More...tart...than the candy kind of fruit roll up, which was fine by me, but I am sure you could make it sweeter by just adding more honey...or using better fruit than my mushy berries.

I don't know exactly how long they last, but honey has no expiration date, and dried fruit has a really long shelf life (I have heard conservative guesses of up to a year, if stored properly). So, combined, I imagine they would last just as long as the dried fruit would.